With $15.5M Seed, AirMDR Targets SMB Cybersecurity Gaps

AirMDR, a Menlo Park-based startup led by CEO Kumar Saurabh, claims its AI analysts can triage 95% of security alerts in under five minutes. That level of responsiveness, paired with human oversight, is what the company is pitching to help a sector grappling with an overwhelming volume of threats and a chronic shortage of skilled talent.

Founded in 2023, AirMDR is building an AI-native managed detection and response (MDR) platform designed to give small and midsize businesses access to enterprise-grade security operations at a cost and complexity they can manage. The company recently closed a $15.5 million seed round, led by Race Capital with participation from Foundation Capital and Storm Ventures. The new capital will go toward product development, scaling go-to-market efforts, and deepening partnerships with managed security service providers.

Automating the SOC

AirMDR’s primary offering is an AI-powered security operations center platform that automates alert triage, investigation, and response. They say the system is designed to take over tasks typically handled by tier-one and tier-two analysts, allowing expert staff to focus on higher-order threats and decision-making. AirMDR says that in current deployments, its AI is handling close to 80% of security findings, improving mean time to respond (MTTR) and reducing operational overhead.

Despite the automation focus, Saurabh is clear that human judgment remains essential. “While AI analysts can take care of 80% of the tasks done by level one or two analysts in the SOC, it needs supervision, training, and augmentation,” he said to Dark Reading. To that end, AirMDR embeds a 24/7 human analyst team to oversee and refine AI outputs. This hybrid model is aimed at building trust in AI decision-making, especially as concerns around AI “hallucinations” and false positives remain top of mind for security buyers.